I am wondering whether it is worthwhile to buy some Jamaican money from the Royal Bank before I leave on vacation. Has anyone changed Canadian at the Cambio very recently? What did you get for $100 Canadian? Thanks.
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I am wondering whether it is worthwhile to buy some Jamaican money from the Royal Bank before I leave on vacation. Has anyone changed Canadian at the Cambio very recently? What did you get for $100 Canadian? Thanks.
your best option is to change it at a cambio near your hotel . . . better exchange than buying it here at home . . .
we changed our money over few months ago at our bank here, our rate if you change 250 canadian to 26 thousand ja with no service charge, soon come
Getting Jamaican money from RBC here in Canada would be like exchanging money at the airport. Ya, you could do it but why. Just bring your Canadian dollars down and exchange them in Jamaica for Jamaican dollars. Your driver will stop at a bank or Cambio along the way to Negril. You could exchange money while someone else on your trip gets an icy cold Red Stripe.
I did a little investigation and here is what I found. If you change money at RBC, you would get 87.72 Jamaican dollars for one Canadian. So if you exchanged, say, $250 Canadian, you would get $21930 JA. If you wait until you get to Jamaica, you could exchange your money at Scotia Bank for 91.51 or even better, FX Traders (beside the Hi-Lo) for 92.55. That would give you $23,137 JA. A difference of 1200 Jamaican dollars. That's 6 Red Stripe at Sun Beach Bar. The rates I found are off the internet so they may vary and your bank may even charge a service fee.
Jamaciarob above is mistaken when he says he got $26,000 JA for $250 Canadian. That’s a conversion of $1Can-$104Ja which is unheard of. I would suspect he exchanged USD for $104 JA. Jamaicarob, can you weigh in here and clarify.
we changed our Canadian dollars over to Jamaican a few months ago here and that was our exchange, soon come
I came back a week ago and the exchange rate was 92.5 at the Scotia Bank in Negril. It would be better to wait and exchange in Jamaica than at home.
Rob, You bonused by buying when you did!! Wish I had followed your lead. The Cdn $ has tanked since.
[QUOTE=brownsd54;152511]Getting Jamaican money from RBC here in Canada would be like exchanging money at the airport. Ya, you could do it but why. Just bring your Canadian dollars down and exchange them in Jamaica for Jamaican dollars. Your driver will stop at a bank or Cambio along the way to Negril. You could exchange money while someone else on your trip gets an icy cold Red Stripe.
I did a little investigation and here is what I found. If you change money at RBC, you would get 87.72 Jamaican dollars for one Canadian. So if you exchanged, say, $250 Canadian, you would get $21930 JA. If you wait until you get to Jamaica, you could exchange your money at Scotia Bank for 91.51 or even better, FX Traders (beside the Hi-Lo) for 92.55. That would give you $23,137 JA. A difference of 1200 Jamaican dollars. That's 6 Red Stripe at Sun Beach Bar. The rates I found are off the internet so they may vary and your bank may even charge a service fee.
Jamaciarob above is mistaken when he says he got $26,000 JA for $250 Canadian. That’s a conversion of $1Can-$104Ja which is unheard of. I would suspect he exchanged USD for $104 JA. Jamaicarob, can you weigh in here and clarify.[/
we have copys of our transactions, we did 4 transactions of changing 250 canadian to ja, the results were...26,118.53 25,768.69 23,950.00 24,250.00 soon come
also no service fee, soon come
JamaicaRob it seems me you took some flack for changing money early. Who's laughing now😄 See you in 3 weeks
Forgive my ignorance, but why even bring money to exchange? Why not use an ATM to just withdraw in JA? That's what I always do. Just seems like an extra step to exchange it. Am I missing something?
the machines can and do eat up your atm card, have a nice trip to Kingston to get your card back, soon come
I had to get American as we pay for our room in cash....lets just say I didn't get a kiss but I sure got the other thing! lol....stupid banks....
Don't make monsters Rob. I use mostly ATM AND HAVE never had a problem. I'm sure it has happened but I Haven't actually met any one who has had a problem. The real reason I use it is not having to carry wads of money around.Quote:
Originally Posted by jamaicarob
I do know there is one thing that people from the US and Canada should know....some ATM's in the Carribbean will not accept a pin code that starts with a zero. That might be some folks issues with them. So make sure if you are intending on using your card that it starts with something other than a zero. It can be hit and miss.
soon come
OMG. I think the question has been missed. This thread was started with just a simple question. Should I exchange money in Canada, or wait until I get to Jamaica?? Now it's....Don't bring an ATM card because the machine will eat it. Don't bring cash because the bank will screw you. I got $104 J/ $1 Can a few months ago (but it only $91J now).
Has all of this has left the original poster with the question, why even come at all.
Can we all not agree that it is better to exchange Canadian dollars for Jamaican, here in Jamaica than to do it at a bank in Canada. BTW, don't exchange money at the airport. I think we can all agree on that.
If you use an ATM and withdraw from your account wouldn't your bank give you the same exchange as at home ?
For us Canadians the ATM will give you Jamaican but our accounts are debited as US funds so we will be getting an exchange rate for us to be converted to Canadian .....and you know it will benefit the bank ....LOL .....The quick answer is as has been said......take Canadian and change at Cambio in Negril
whatever
I've withdrawn JA many times and have always been charged for Jamaican, not USD. Our last trip, it was difficult to get JA cash from the ATM's, tried many on diff days. Next trip I'm getting it from the bank before I go, I can order all the small bills I need and it's worth it for me to not have to worry about walking to an ATM to get more. The difference in the exchange rate is minimal; for me, the convenience outweighs the small difference - I don't get excited about saving just a few $$Quote:
Originally Posted by ROBIN
Last year we went for three weeks with ATM cards for my husband and myself, two different accounts at two different credit unions, 4 cards in total and came home with all 4 using the ATM almost every other day. Can't imagine taking that much cash with us, and don't want to worry about it while we are there. That was our experience and going back this yer with the same, although I do convert some cdn to ja prior to leaving just to get us through the first day or two to stock up the fridge and get settled in. Getting a little anxious coming in at 4 weeks or so....Yeamon!!!!! And cannot wait to hear the bleep bleep bleep to put me to sleep sleep sleep :)